Dive Brief:
- After more than a year of research and public meetings, a task force established by the Portland, Maine, City Council recommended the city move forward with creating a social housing program.
- The program would establish a social housing revolving fund and follow commitments to public ownership and accountable governance, permanent housing affordability and mixed-income rental housing, according to the task force report. The City Council is scheduled to discuss the recommendation in September.
- Portland City Councilor Kate Sykes described the initiative as an addition to “tools that we already have” to address housing affordability. “It asks how the city can use its borrowing capacity and public assets to build mixed-income housing, retain public ownership and invest the value that we create into additional housing,” Sykes said at an Aug. 24 special council meeting.
Dive Insight:
As cities across the country face a dearth of affordable housing options, some are turning to social housing programs, which can help maintain majority city or nonprofit control over housing developments to keep them affordable.
Chicago last year began laying the groundwork for a social housing model through a new nonprofit developer using city financing, and Seattle purchased its first building under a new mixed-income social housing program this past spring.
The Portland Social Housing Task Force recommended two pilot programs for the city of about 70,000 residents. One would involve operating a city-owned, mixed-income housing development, and the other would oversee city-financed, city-owned additive rental units within an established Portland Housing Authority or Portland Housing Development Corporation as an immediate case study.
Sykes, co-chair of the task force, said it hosted 18 public meetings and educational sessions, examined other social housing models and looked closely at financing and city-owned land.
